AC22 Properties - Read Zones within Zones

[drewcaddy]

Hi Team,

Have just started playing around with Properties in AC22 in an attempt to streamline some of the manual processes in our office. One such process we are hoping to automate is an Apartment Type Matrix (a document which lists the different apartment types within a project, including the bathroom/ kitchen type that is used in each).

Currently, we use Zones to differentiate types, and input the information manually into the Properties of the Zone.

To streamline, I am trying to find a way of the Properties to read if a zone is within another zone. (ie. an apartment type Zone (T01/ T02) will contain a bathroom mod file, which will contain a Zone with a Zone Name B01. That mod will then be placed in multiple apartment types, with each apartment type Zone properties updating based on what bathroom mod Zone Name is.

I have achieved something similar for creating a schedule which can detect 'Conflicting Zones', but is the same thing possible within Properties?

Thanks!

[Laszlo Nagy]

Properties can calculate and return values only about the element they belong to but not about its relationship with other elements. There are some exceptions like the From Zone/To Zone/Related Zone Name and Number parameters, but these are available for other element types not for Zones.

There are two possible ways I think this could be achieved but neither is easy:

1. Hire a person who would write an Add-On for Archicad that can do this.

2. Use the Archicad-Grasshopper Connection. The way this could work is you could read the Zone geometries into Grasshopper using the connection, then perform the comparisons there between Zones to find which Zone is within another Zone. Then, since the Connection cannot modify existing Archicad elements or their parameters (the Connection can modify only Archicad elements It created), you could do something through Excel. You would export Zone Properties that are supposed to store this information from a generated Schedule from Archicad. Then, from Grasshopper, use an Excel connection to fill out the values of these Properties in Excel, then import the data from Excel back into the Archicad Properties. And you would have to repeat these steps when Zones change.

So, there is currently no easy or fast way to achieve this.